


All the More

by livelifeliving



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F, Human Carmilla Karnstein, Sudoku AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-10
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-04-25 19:25:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4973230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livelifeliving/pseuds/livelifeliving
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone seems to have finished Laura's Sudoku puzzle for her, one that she had really been looking forward to having the satisfaction of completing. Luckily whoever it was left behind an unfinished puzzle of their own. Laura could never have guessed that she and this mystery Sudoku solver of hers would finish off the whole book together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I Don't Know You

**Author's Note:**

> _I don’t know you but I want you_  
>  _All the more for that_  
>  -Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard

 “What am I supposed to do for an hour, Danny?” Laura said, huffing as she stopped dead in her tracks. “I’m already practically at the office. I’m not going to walk all the way back to my apartment now just to turn around and do it all over again twenty minutes later.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Laura,” Danny’s voice came in through the phone. “Mel called in sick at the last minute, so I’m stuck here until someone else can come in. Go window shop or get a bite to eat or something. It’s downtown Toronto, for God’s sake. It’s not like there’s nothing open.”

Laura sighed into her phone, pouting despite the fact that Danny couldn’t see her face. “Fine,” she mumbled. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

Hanging up, Laura stuck her phone in her pocket before taking a look around. A law office, a boutique that looked cute but way out of her price range, an optometrist, and what appeared to be a little café seemed to be what she had to choose from in her direct vicinity. Laura weighed her options for a good half a second before turning to face the store with a large coffee cup on the front sign, the word ‘Silas’ printed across the top. “Silas it is,” she muttered to herself before walking in.

The place was cozy, all dark wood and plump couches, complete with a fireplace and quiet music playing in the background. Laura was broken out of her inspection of the café though, as a smiling redhead addressed her. “Hi there, dear! Anything I can get started for you?”

Laura hesitated for a moment, caught off guard and having not even glanced at the menu above the counter. “Um, sorry! It’s my first time here,” she explained apologetically. “Give me one sec, and I’ll be ready.”

“Oh, it’s no problem at all,” the ginger replied, her smile unwavering despite Laura’s unpreparedness. “Just let me know if you have any questions at all,” she added helpfully.

Laura nodded as she took in the many options before finally making a decision. “Alright, I think I’m ready,” she began, looking back at the woman on the other side of the counter. “I’ll have a medium caramel hot cocoa, please.”

Laura sat down with her cocoa in one of the armchairs before noticing the small stack of books on the side table beside her. Worn crossword, word search, and Sudoku puzzle books sat there, along with a few pencils and pens in a tin, accompanied by coffee beans to hold them in place. While leafing through the books for a moment, Laura checked her phone, noticing she still had over half an hour until she needed to be on her way, and decided that passing the time with some Sudoku didn’t sound bad at all. Grabbing a pencil, she tucked her legs under her before setting her focus on the first puzzle in the book, taking occasional sips from her drink.

Before she knew it, her phone was buzzing with the arrival of a text. It was only as she read the message from Danny, letting her know she was on her way, that she realized the time has passed so quickly. Stretching, she let the Sudoku book close on the puzzle she hadn’t quite finished.

Laura brought her mug back up to the counter, the girl whose nametag read ‘Perry’ offering a cheerful wave and “Come back soon” before she made her way back onto the sidewalk. As she began to walk, Laura thought about how relaxed she felt. She hadn’t taken the time to just sit and do a puzzle without constantly being on her phone or watching Netflix or having a billion other things going on around her in quite some time. Perhaps she would have to take the barista up on her request and return to Silas. Plus she really wanted to finish up that puzzle.

\--

“Hello again,” the redheaded woman who Laura remembered as Perry said with a smile as Laura made her way through the doors of the Silas café.

A grin spread across Laura’s face, offering a cheery, “Hello,” as she unwrapped the scarf from her neck. After undoing the buttons on her pea coat, she continued. “I’ll have a caramel hot cocoa, please.”

“One caramel hot cocoa coming right up for,” Perry began, hesitating for a moment before Laura interrupted to help her out.

“Oh! I’m Laura,” she said unable to keep from smiling once more as the woman across from her nodded.

“One caramel hot cocoa for Laura,” she tries again, “It’ll be right out.” Laura nodded, offering a quick “Thank you” as she paid before moving to hang up her winter wear on the coat rack. 

Drink in hand, Laura made her way to the same seat she had been in before, settling in before smiling as she saw the Sudoku puzzle book stacked on the table beside her once more.

“I’m going to finish you this time,” she mumbled as she opened the book. As she looked it over though, she realized that the puzzle appeared to have already been finished. Her smile waned briefly before she flipped the page, seeing that there was a newly started puzzle on it, left uncompleted just as hers had been.

After quickly assessing the progress the person last working on the puzzle had made, she began, falling back into her relaxed focus as she worked away.

\--

Before long, Silas had become a regular part of Laura’s routine. Mondays and Thursdays, she would enter the café, now good friends with Perry as well as the other employee often working during Laura’s time there, LaFontaine. Before her coat would even be on the coat rack, her caramel hot cocoa was always waiting for her and she would make her way over to what had now become her spot.

The Sudoku had also become a part of her routine, and she would be lying if it weren’t the cause of the excitement she usually felt as she walked into the coffee shop. Ever since her second time in the café, Laura had been finding her started puzzles completed and newly started ones waiting for her, begun by some mystery person. She had yet to find a time when that had not been the case.

It was a very strange feeling. She was working on these puzzles with someone, the two of them solving each one together, without ever actually coming into contact. She knew it was silly, but in her mind, this mystery Sudoku solver had become what would almost be considered a friend. It was comforting; to feel that there was someone else who was a part of Laura’s ritual of coffee and Sudoku, even if the two had not even met.

When Laura opened the book, she flipped to the page of the puzzle she had last been working on, just as she always did, to check and see if the person had been back, finishing her work as they had the many times before. She smiled as she saw the puzzle filled in with the sharp 7’s and squiggly 3’s she had come to recognize.

Her eyes were then drawn to edge of the page, where she had written out in her loopy cursive, _WHY. WON’T. YOU. WORK._ during a moment of frustration while working on the puzzle. Now, instead of just her handwriting lining that small part of the page, there was so much more. The mystery Sudoku solver seemed to be a bit of a doodler, as Laura examined the way her words had sprouted into a pattern of intricate sketches. Flowers and cats and raindrops and mythical creatures sat upon and dripped from and stood beside her letters, and it was the first time she had been able to gain any sort of insight into the person who she had been interacting with.

Having seen a doodle of what appeared to Laura to be a small monster, she smiled, and without thinking much about it, added a small caption beneath it. _Sudoku can be scary_ , she wrote before turning her attention to the newly started puzzle, working her way through it.

\--

Laura and her mystery Sudoku pal continued this pattern of solving each others puzzles, now with the addition of Laura being greeted by little doodles, which she then would then add small captions or thought bubbles or speech bubbles to, thinking up cheesy jokes or funny explanations for the drawings presented to her in the hopes that she’s able to brighten this other person’s day as much as hers was whenever she opened the book to find something new waiting- something meant for her.

It had become something special, this strange bond formed over these remote interactions. It was so innocent, so simple, and such a welcome distraction from the fast-paced track that Laura always seemed to find herself on.

As Laura opened up the book, her smile grew wide, seeing the doodle waiting for her on the margin of the newly started puzzle’s page. A quick drawing of a woman with dark waves of hair, high cheekbones, and what could only be described as a playful smirk on the sketched out face sat on the page before Laura. Above the drawn girl was a sharp arrow, with one word floating off of it. _CARMILLA._

Laura attempted a doodled self-portrait, hoping that the hours of mindless drawing during college lectures would pay off and allow her to sketch something that looked at least remotely like herself. Of course it was not anywhere near as good as the drawing of Carmilla.

It felt strange to have a name for the person who had for weeks now been known only as the mystery person who solved Laura’s Sudoku puzzles. Laura tried it out on her tongue, whispering the name under her breath. “Carmilla.” It was beautiful. And if the drawing was at all accurate, then the woman to whom it belongs was beautiful as well.

After having briefly assessed her self-portrait, Laura added a speech bubble floating above her drawn head. _Nice to meet you, Carmilla. I’m Laura…You come here often?_

\--

Normally Laura would have flipped back to the puzzle she had last worked on immediately upon taking a seat in her chair at Silas. This day was different, though. When Laura had last held the book in her hands, she had been starting to work on the last puzzle in the book. If her once mystery Sudoku solver had stuck with their routine, then Laura and Carmilla had worked their way through each and every puzzle those pages held.

 So, before checking to see if the puzzle had been finished, as she usually would have, Laura took her time. She started at the beginning of the book, leafing her way through the pages one at a time. She spent time looking at how the two different styles of handwriting came together on the same puzzle, Carmilla’s sophisticated and sharply written numbers mixing right in with Laura’s, which tended to be more relaxed and curved.

Laura admired the simple, mindless doodles that Carmilla had begun with. She laughed as she happened upon the page where Carmilla had begun solving a puzzle in roman numerals, with Laura following suit as she finished it. The doodles on the following page were sketches of Carmilla and Laura side by side in togas, a brief story explained in a caption and speech bubbles, which Laura had thought up, involving a frat party mix-up and a cheesy Julius Caesar pun added on. Another involved Carmilla writing out a key where each number was represented by a small sketched out pastry item. Cupcakes and cookies and brownies were assigned to numbers as a way to tease Laura after she had accidentally got a bit of frosting on the book, offering explanation by way of an arrow and the words _Cupcake…oops_.  From that point on, Carmilla tended to refer to her with the names of baked goods, although the list had widened over time to include other ridiculous but funny pet names. It was hard for Laura to believe she had never actually met this person she had grown so fond of.

 _But what now?_ Laura thought to herself. Would it seem desperate to go to the bookstore a few blocks away and buy up every Sudoku book they had? Laura would do it, she really would. And she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t spent a late night or two browsing Amazon for Sudoku books large enough to keep whatever this was going on between Carmilla and herself for at least the next year. It was silly to think it was anything at all going on though. The two had never actually interacted. They used the same Sudoku book and doodled on the same pages occasionally. Going by that logic she was probably already married to whoever shared the desk she’d sat at in 8 th grade algebra class. Laura sighed, letting the pages flip through her fingers.

As she reached the end of the book, a loose piece of paper fell from between the final page and back cover and onto the floor. Slightly confused and very curious, Laura bent and picked up the page to examine it.

On the white paper, thick and textured like it had been torn from a sketchbook, was a hand drawn Sudoku puzzle. The way that the numbers were formed immediately let Laura know who its creator had been. As she looked it over, she couldn’t help but smile, imagining the dark haired girl sitting in that very same spot and thinking up an additional puzzle for her to solve.

Laura grabbed a pencil and turned her focus to the numbers before her, when she realized that it had already been mostly completed. Only ten empty spaces remained on the page.

Without difficulty, Laura added in the missing numbers one by one. It seemed strange that Carmilla would have gone through the trouble of thinking up and drawing out a puzzle for her if there was hardly anything left for her to solve on it. Tapping her pencil against her leg, Laura looked at the puzzle for a moment longer before turning to take a sip of her cocoa.

As she did, her eyes were drawn to the completed book at her side, open to the very last puzzle. Below the boxes of numbers were three words, traced out in large letters. _Call me, Cutie._


	2. But I Want To

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All Carmilla knows is that she finished the Sudoku book but she is not ready to be finished with Laura

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to the awesome response I got on what I had originally planned to be the only installment of the Sudoku AU, I've decided to add a few more chapters. Thank you so much to everyone who commented with suggestions for another part to this thing, you're the ones who inspired this! I'd love to hear what you guys would like to see next!

Since Tuesday, Carmilla must have checked her phone north of a thousand times. It was truly ridiculous. That didn’t keep her from jumping at the sound of a vibration- or the sound of the refrigerator buzzing to life, apparently, since her phone had nothing to give her by way of new text messages or incoming calls.

Finally, she threw her phone to the other side of the couch with a groan, deciding that not having the temptation of checking the damn thing might keep her from losing focus every five seconds. She’d been pretty much useless the past two days and really needed to get some work done.

Carmilla didn’t even know what day the Sudoku girl- _Laura_ \- usually went to Silas. All she knew was that, when she went to the café on Tuesday and Friday mornings, the puzzles she’d been working on were completed and there were new ones waiting for her to finish.

There was also the possibility that Laura had had to skip her coffee this week. She hadn’t ever done that in the weeks they’d been solving puzzles together, but it was bound to happen at some point. It was completely plausible.

Of course it was also possible that Laura had just not wanted to contact Carmilla. After all, the little doodles and comics they had exchanged were hardly enough to be considered a relationship of any sort. Carmilla had probably been too forward. It was completely idiotic to have thought that the routine they had established would mean the other girl would want any sort of actual interaction. _What had she been thinking?_

 Well whatever might happen, it was out of Carmilla’s control at this point, so with a sigh she got up from the sofa and strutted over to her worktable. After stretching her arms, she reached over to the stereo, turning it up before settling to work on her current project.

\--

It was only once she realized there was no longer enough natural light to keep working that Carmilla looked up from the illustration she’d been so focused on. Stretching her arms, she scooted back from her desk and stood up from her chair.

She entered back into her small living room just in time to watch her cat extend a paw, effectively sliding her phone right off the couch and onto the ground. “Gee, thanks Bagh,” Carmilla mumbled with a chuckle as she crossed the room, petting the feline before reaching down to grab her phone.

A black polished nail tapped at the center button to check the time, but the hour was forgotten in an instant as she looked down at the notification on the screen. She had a text message. From a new number. This was it. Carmilla quickly unlocked the phone, reading the message as it appeared in her hand.

**Hi! Is this Carmilla?**

Unable to keep the beginnings of a smile off her face, she typed back a response.

**Depends. Who’s asking?**

Almost immediately she had a reply.

**This is Laura.**

Carmilla was about to send a response, when the three little dots appeared back on the screen.

**From the Sudoku book.**

**At Silas.**

**Sorry if I have the wrong number, I got it from a puzzle.**

**So I may have put the numbers in the wrong order.**

**Or maybe I solved the puzzle wrong.**

**I am so sorry just ignore this.**

Carmilla couldn’t help but laugh as she watched the dots pop up again and again as each text came in. After waiting a few seconds more to make sure Laura wouldn’t start back up again and continue her texting rampage, Carmilla sent off a response.

**Relax, Creampuff. It’s me.**

She fell back onto her couch, running a hand through her hair as she kept her focus on the phone.

**Hi there!**

A grin made its way across her lips. _This was really happening._ She was actually texting Laura.

\--

Carmilla had thought that Silas would be a nice spot for her first meet up with Laura. After all, this way she wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of deciding on somewhere they would both enjoy, or giving directions, or any other things that could make a first meeting even more awkward than it was bound to be. Plus, this way they wouldn’t even have to deal with seeking each other out in the café. It was just assumed that whoever arrived first would be in Carmilla’s spot- or Laura’s spot, she supposed- _their_ spot?

When Carmilla entered Silas, she immediately turned to see if the seat was occupied. When she saw a honey-haired girl in the seat, she felt a twinge of something flutter through her stomach. Nerves? Excitement? Some combination of the two?

God, she really needed to pull it together. She was Carmilla Karnstein after all, not some hopelessly awkward child desperate for attention and freaking out over a stupid coffee date. She ran a hand through her hair, releasing a breath as she forced herself to relax.

It wasn’t until she was brought out of her thoughts by LaFontaine’s voice that she realized her eyes were still focused on the girl that could only be Laura.

“Sorry, C,” the less perky of the ginger twins that usually worked the café spoke. “It appears that someone beat you to your seat, which, statistically, was bound to happen at some point. Frankly I’m surprised that this is the first time.”

Before they could go off on some tangent about probability, Carmilla turned to look at them, making sure to effectively suppress any and all signs of the obstinate fluttering still going on inside her. “What did she order?”

Grabbing a mug from the stack on the counter, LaF shrugged. “Just a caramel hot cocoa.”

Carmilla’s eyes moved to scan the pastry display, her eyebrows furrowing as she searched for what she was looking for, “Nothing else?”

They looked at her questioningly, clearly unsure as to why someone else’s order would be of any interest to her. Especially considering Carmilla usually couldn’t care less about anything other than getting her order with as little interaction as possible. Finally, they gave her an answer “Um, no, not today, but-“

Carmilla cut LaFontaine off before they could continue, rolling her eyes. “I”ll have my regular. And a chocolate cupcake.”

LaF’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “Mixing it up, Karnstein?”

“It’s not for me,” Carmilla muttered in reply, staring them down, as though daring them to question her.

Of course this was the mad scientist though, and Carmilla should have known better. The questioning was inevitable. “Then who’s it-“ LaF began, before their eyes wandered behind her to the lighter haired girl. They brought their focus back to Carmilla, a smirk across their lips.

Carmilla rolled her eyes, but made no attempt to deny the claim. “Oh! Wait, so that’s why Laura came in today? And why you’re here later than usual? Are you guys, like, on a date?”

Her arms crossed in front of her chest, refusing to answer the ginger’s questions. “If I don’t have my melange in 30 seconds, I’m leaving.”

LaF chuckled, but returned her focus to the drink she had started on. “You know this isn’t Vienna, right? I just make a cappuccino and spray some whip cream on top.” 

Carmilla was about to respond when she felt eyes on her. Closing her mouth before any words had left her mouth, she turned her head to look back at the chair she usually occupied.

The girl sitting there appeared to be doing her best not to smile too widely, although not doing too great a job of it, while she looked Carmilla over. As Carmilla continued to look over at her, their eyes meeting, the lighter haired girl waved, and it’s quite possible that Carmilla had never seen something so adorable before. She couldn’t help but let a soft laugh escape her lips before fluttering her fingers in a soft wave of her own.

“Order up for the Countess of Snark.” Carmilla broke her gaze away to glare at LaFontaine, who now had a shit-eating grin plastered across their face after having witnessed the interaction. She grabbed her drink and the cupcake, walking away before anything could be said.

Laura rose from her seat as Carmilla walked up to her. She brushed her hair behind her ear and smiled up at her. “Hey.”

Immediately, a smile was pulling at the corners of Carmilla’s lips, although she quickly reined it in, doing her best to maintain her composure. “Hey.” She remembered the baked good in her hand. “A cupcake for the cupcake.”

Laura took the small plate from Carmilla, a soft blush creeping onto her cheeks as she laughed softly. “Thanks.”

Carmilla sat down at the chair beside the one she usually claimed as her own, crossing her legs as she took a moment to just look at Laura, to really let it sink in that this very girl was the one who had been solving her Sudoku puzzles and coming up with cheesy and adorable little stories to accompany her mindless doodles.

Laura opened her mouth once, then again, closing it both times as though she were unsure about which words she wanted to come out. Carmilla raised an eyebrow. “Do I need to put a Sudoku puzzle in front of you for you to speak to me, buttercup?”

Laura opened her mouth for a third time, this time to let out a nervous giggle before she sheepishly pulled a new Sudoku book from her bag. “I may have bought one to bring along just in case.”

Carmilla couldn’t help but laugh as a shade of pink tinted her own cheeks. She reached into her own bag, pulling out a book as well before explaining, “I bought it last week in case I never heard back from you.”

“But you still brought it?” Laura replied, a curious tilt of her head accompanying her questioning tone.

Carmilla shrugged, her grin pulling up into a playful smirk. “Just in case.”


	3. Falling Slowly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carmilla misreads the situation and Laura adorably rambles her way into all of our hearts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the Loser of the Year Award goes to....me. Definitely me. I am SO sorry for waiting forever and a day to update this. I can say with 150% certainty that the next installment will be up in less time than this one was. Please accept my apology. Also thank you so much for all of the kudos and wonderful comments. I'm always open to suggestions, and constructive criticism, pointing out of errors, or just a stopping in to say "hey" are all always welcome.

Carmilla was having a good time, really she was. She had never been one for blind dates or small talk, probably due to the fact that “likable” and “easy to talk to” were not among her more notable qualities. Sure, both of these had been things she had been more than half way expecting when she agreed to meet Laura at Silas, but it really had gone nothing like she’d worried it would- not that she’d worried or anything. 

She usually wasn’t one to share too much of herself at the start, but she found herself going on about even some of her more obscure interests. This was probably in part due to the fact that the cupcake spoke as though she may never get another chance to comment on each topic, sometimes even worrying Carmilla that she wasn’t getting in enough oxygen to her brain between her words. Regardless, it was comfortable and playful, and Carmilla might even be so bold as to say a little flirtatious- or she _would_ if Laura hadn’t been glancing down at her phone every few minutes, trying and failing to be discrete as she typed out texts throughout their conversation over the past hour.

After what had to be the fifteenth time Laura’s phone had quietly buzzed in her lap, Carmilla got the hint. This was definitely nothing more than a quenching of curiosity for Laura. It made sense that she would want to meet the person she’d been interacting with over a Sudoku book for so long. Carmilla could understand that. Laura was just a naturally friendly person, and it was obvious that Carmilla had misread that as her being interested in her. Running a hand through her hair, she let out a breath and adjusted how she was approaching the conversation accordingly.

She leaned back in her chair, noticing that she’d scooted forward over the course of their interactions, having leaned in closer to the girl before her. She crossed her arms and straightened her lips, erasing the hint of a smile that had somehow managed to appear.

It was only as she crossed her legs that she realized that the honey-haired girl had stopped speaking and was looking at Carmilla as though waiting for some sort of response. Taking her recent epiphany into account, Carmilla raised an eyebrow, her voice cooler than it had been before as she spoke, “Sorry, Poptart, were you saying something? 

She couldn’t help it as she cringed internally, seeing the bright smile of the woman before her fade and tighten in response. “Oh, um, it was nothing important. I’m probably boring you and-“ Her phone buzzed once more, and Laura looked down at her phone. “Oh gosh, and I’ve already kept you here for like an hour and I mean, I don’t have anywhere to be but I’m sure you do.”

Carmilla felt her posture relaxing, her arms moving from where they were crossed against her chest as Laura continued. “And it was so nice of you to even meet me here, especially since I know I’m probably not what you had expected- I mean, look at you! And I’m-“ 

“Careful, cutie.” This time it was Carmilla cutting her off, her lips turned upwards and her hand on the arm of Laura’s chair. “Wouldn’t want whoever’s been texting you this whole time to hear that.” 

Laura’s expression shifted from one of embarrassment and worry to one of pure confusion. The smirk Carmilla wore turned into a soft smile at the sight of the bunched up face Laura was making. Adorable was the word that came to mind.

“Wait, why would-“ It was in this moment that the light bulb seemed to go off in her mind. “No! It’s just my friend, Danny.”

Carmilla nodded her head, playing along. “Right,” she began, drawing out the word, “your friend.” 

Laura shook her head, a soft laugh escaping her lips. “No really, we’re not...whatever you think we are.” Her hands began to move as she continued offering her explanation. “We just work together. We’ve been friends since college.” 

Carmilla’s fingers tapped against the arm of Laura’s chair, an unconvinced look on her face. She watched as Laura took a deep breath in. “I _may_ have been a little nervous for this d- meet up, and I tend to ramble when I’m nervous, so-“ 

“You don’t say,” Carmilla interjected. 

“ _So_ ,” Laura continued, a playful glare meeting Carmilla’s rather amused expression, “she’s gotten to hear a lot about this whole thing, and you, and she just wanted to make sure you hadn’t stood me up or anything.”

Carmilla nodded as she listened to the explanation, although still not sure how that could warrant _that_ many texts in such a short time. “And the subsequent thirty messages have been about…?” 

“Psh, You know, just” Laura began, a forced chuckle leaving her lips as she shrugged, unconvincingly trying to play it off, “checking to see if you were,” Laura shrugged again, her eyes suddenly very focused on her mug of cocoa, “attractive and stuff.”

Carmilla couldn’t help the smirk that spread across her lips, the playful glint returning to her eye as she looked at Laura. “Well, am I?”

“Are you what?” Laura squeaked out her head shooting back up to look at the dark-haired girl.

“Attractive and,” Carmilla paused for a moment, her index finger tracing the rim of her coffee as her eyes roved from Laura’s eyes to her toes and back up, “stuff.”

If Laura hadn’t been blushing before, she was now. Carmilla didn’t focus on the color of her cheeks for long though, as Laura brought her lip between her teeth, sufficiently distracting Carmilla. “Like I said before,” she finally answered, “look at you.”

Now Carmilla’s own cheeks were burning, the compliment hitting her harder than it had in the middle of Laura’s rambling minutes before. It also struck her that the girl before her, with her bright eyes and inviting smile and usually very attractive confidence seemed to think that she was somehow less striking than Carmilla.

“Laura,” Carmilla began and she watched Laura seemed to focus even more on her. It struck her that this was the first time she had actually used the girl’s actual name. “You were right, in what you had said before.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “You’re not what I had expected.”

She wet her lips, looking Laura over. “I’d been led to believe you were- how did you put it in the Sudoku book? A ‘plain, short girl, with dull brown hair and a tendency to talk too much. Nothing to write home about’? So imagine my surprise when, instead, I’m having coffee with a bright, intelligent woman who is, quite frankly, beautiful.”

Laura’s attention was mainly focused on her hands currently situated in her lap, but Carmilla didn’t miss the occasional glances up at her as she spoke, Laura’s cheeks and neck flushed at the compliments. 

“I’m not sure who told you you were nothing to write home about, Sundance, but they were sadly mistaken. Also quite possibly blind.” Laura giggled slightly, and Carmilla felt those damn fluttering butterflies in her stomach once more at the sound.

With a wide smile, Laura spoke, luckily much less quickly than her last words had been. “Thanks, Carm.”

There was a moment of silence between them as Carmilla’s eyebrows raised at the new nickname. Sure, she had given all sorts of names to Laura, but she’d never expected to receive one in return. Truthfully she’d never been a fan of names she’d been called in the past, but for whatever reason, this one didn’t bother her.

As Carmilla remained quiet, Laura realized her slip up, her eyes growing wider and the rambling returned. “Sorry, I- I started calling you that in my head during the whole Sudoku thing.”

“Laura, it’s fine.” For as often as she used pet names, she did really like the way that name felt rolling off her tongue. She smiled a little wider. “I definitely don’t mind it coming from you.

Laura just nodded, taking a sip from her cocoa. When she put the drink down, she looked back at Carmilla. “So do you really have a black cat named Bagheera?”

Carmilla laughed- honest to god laughed, as Laura so quickly switched from cute to inquisitive. She crossed her arms again, although this time in a more playful manner, before she shrugged. “Maybe”

“It’s a yes or no question, _Carm_ ,” Laura spoke, using the newly accepted nickname, drawing it out. “You can’t _maybe_ have a cat.”

She held her bottom lip between her teeth, knowing full and well that if she didn’t she might end up smiling like an idiot. It was not lost on her when Laura mirrored her action though, and _really_ , how in the universe had this girl ever considered herself _plain_? 

“Well, I have to keep some of my secrets. Otherwise I’ll lose my air of mystery, won’t I?”


End file.
